Jijiu really didn't like branding women.
This is mainly because of Mrs. Lao's crazy and extremely irritable personality, which makes people really want to stay away from her.
In the entire Toyotomi army, only Toyotomi Nobuhide could get close to the branded woman normally, and at the same time, only Toyotomi Nobuhide could control this mad dog.
And Jijiu didn't like branding women, and there was another... rather special reason.
The sword used by the woman who branded her was a two-sword sword.
What Yoshihisa hates the most is the dual sword style.
On that day more than forty years ago.
On the day when Iga-no-sato was destroyed.
The sight of a young man holding two swords made Yoshihisa engrave a deep hatred and fear for the term "two swords style" in the depths of his soul.
Even though he had not seen the young man since that day more than forty years ago, Yoshihisa still remembered the sword he used.
Remember that person's eyes...
Jijiu never thought that he would be able to look that man in the eye during his lifetime.
The shock was so strong that Jijiu lost consciousness for a short time.
But in a flash, Jijiu's consciousness was brought back to reality by two shouts -
"Stop them! Stop them!"
"Go! Don't hold back!"
Three ninjas rushed towards Genichi and Mamiya from behind.
When Yoshihisa regained consciousness, his expression changed. He immediately took out two gun barrels and a gun head from his arms, and shouted at the three men who bravely rushed towards Genichi and Mamiya:
"Get back now!"
Jijiu had warned his men as quickly as he could.
It’s a pity...it’s too late.
Three blade beams lit up at the same time.
Two sword beams were emitted from Yuanyi, and one sword beam was emitted from Jianmiya.
The three ninjas who were so aggressive just now all turned into dead bodies on the ground when the swords fell.
"Tsk...!" Yoshijiu, whose face turned pale and blue, had assembled his pistol in a flash.
The pistol that Yoshihisa used was a special pistol that could be disassembled into three parts and carried in the arms.
"Lao Madam..." Ji Jiu said in a deep voice, "A troublesome person is coming, you..."
Bang!
From the corner of his eye, Yoshihisa caught a glimpse of a very long afterimage, which swept towards Mamiya like a meteor.
Mamiya narrowed his eyes and held Vairocana in front of him.
clang!
The double swords in the woman's hands collided heavily with Vairocana in the palace in mid-air.
"Haha!" The branded lady smiled with joy, "Finally, something interesting happened tonight!"
The powerful force that did not seem to be able to be exerted by a woman was transmitted along the blade of Vairocana to Mamiya's arms, causing Mamiya's expression to change slightly.
Just as Mamiya was about to use his strength to block the knife that was branding the woman—
"Hmm?" Mamiya frowned suddenly, "Your knife..."
…
…
“Tsk…” Ji Jiu gritted his teeth and cursed in a low voice, “Lao woman, you really are a… disobedient mad dog…!”
Although he said this, after cursing in a low voice, he also clenched the pistol in his hand and rushed towards Yuan Yi, just like the branded woman just now.
He originally wanted Mrs. Lao to concentrate with him on killing Yuan Yi first, because he knew better than anyone here how terrible things would happen if the old man with two swords was not killed as soon as possible.
Seeing Yoshihisa rushing towards him, Genichi stood still, leisurely spread his legs, and got into position.
laugh!
The tip of the gun pierced through the air and stabbed into Genichi's chest.
Genichi did not take Yoshihisa's attack head-on.
He used his left foot as an axis and turned his body counterclockwise, dodging Yoshihisa's attack while using the centrifugal force brought to swing his sword at Yoshihisa.
This is the technique that Genichi once taught Ogata - the move of dodging.
The speed at which offense and defense were exchanged was dizzying.
Yoshihisa used his feet to push against the ground, retracted the pistol, and swept the steel shaft towards Genichi's slashing knife.
clang!
The spear stopped Yang Shen's slashing move.
"Kinoshita Genichi..." Yoshihisa's facial features twisted in a strange way, "How did you find this place...!"
…
…
Time goes back to not long ago——
Osaka, where A-Machi, Hulu-ya and others are hiding——
“Mmm…! Mmm…!”
The water kept pouring on Aqing's face, which was covered with a white cloth, causing Aqing to moan in pain.
Seeing that the female ninja was about to die if she continued to pour water like this, Asai quickly stopped pouring water, lifted the white cloth covering Aqing's face, and then grabbed Aqing's collar, shaking Aqing vigorously while shouting:
"Tell me! Who are you? You must have a base like this in Osaka, right? Tell me now!"
Asai's originally handsome face now looked particularly ferocious due to his impatience and anger.
Ah Qing coughed for a long time, until saliva and snot bubbles came out, before she finally recovered.
After she recovered, the first thing she did was to cast a mocking and disdainful look at Asai.
"That's all... Is that all? This isn't enough for me to open my mouth..."
The sarcasm and disdain on Aqing's face became even more intense.
"How about you try a different method of torture?"
"Like cutting me every two breaths?"
"...As expected of a ninja." Mamiya said calmly, "I have to admire your firm will."
"Hey, Mamiya." Asai cast an extremely displeased look at Mamiya, "Why are you praising the enemy? Mamiya, how about we try a different method of interrogation?"
"Waterboarding is the most painful torture method we have at our disposal," Mamiya said. "If waterboarding can't make this man surrender, then other methods will be useless."
"So what do we do now?"
"Asai, please be patient. My anxiety over my master's capture is no less than yours."
Mamiya took off his glasses, then took out a clean cloth and wiped the lenses.
"Let's just continue to interrogate this female kunoichi step by step. Then we'll wait and see what happens with Makimura and the others."
Over there, Makimura and the others——
"Ugh...Puh, cough, cough!"
Makimura raised his hand to signal Shimada to stop pouring water, and then lifted the white cloth on Jie Zheng's face.
Before Makimura could ask anything, Jie Zheng started coughing and glaring at Makimura and Shimada fiercely.
Just by looking at his eyes, Makimura and Shimada knew everything - this man still refused to say anything.
"No, Senior Makimura." Shimada shook his head at Makimura with a bitter look on his face. "Is there any torture method more severe than water torture?"
"Tsk..." Mucun gritted his teeth, "What a tough nut to crack..."
Jie Zheng, who was tortured by Makimura and Shimada, was also subjected to painful water torture like Aqing.
But like Aqing, he has kept his mouth shut until now, with an attitude of "No matter what, I won't say anything."
After glaring at Makimura and Shimada with a fierce look for a while, Jie Zheng slowly closed his eyes.
His consciousness involuntarily went back to this evening.
Looking back to this evening, when tonight's battle was about to begin, Yoshihisa and others held a mobilization ceremony for the commanders of the musketeer troops.
Yoshihisa: "Everyone! This day we have been waiting for has finally come!"
The mobilization ceremony was held on the outskirts of Osaka.
The mobilization ceremony was presided over by the front-line commander Yoshihisa and the abbot of Longshui Temple whose Buddhist name was Qingcheng.
Yoshihisa was in charge of delivering inspiring speeches.
And Kiyosumi was responsible for going to each musketeer unit commander after Yoshihisa's speech and chanting sutras for each of them.
At the same time, each person was given a stick-shaped magic tool that was said to have been personally blessed by Qingcheng himself and could bring good luck to everyone.
It is said that the part of chanting scriptures and praying for each commander and presenting ritual instruments was added at Qingcheng's own request. He said he wanted to do everything he could for the soldiers.
Jie Zheng had a deep memory of Qingcheng, because after Qingcheng finished chanting sutras and praying for each person, he would hug that person tightly and then say, "I wish you good luck in military affairs."
Qingcheng's body and clothes were scented with a special kind of incense. When Qingcheng hugged Jie Zheng, Jie Zheng was choked by the strong fragrance on Qingcheng's body and started coughing.
During this mobilization ceremony, Jie Zheng was deeply impressed by Qingcheng, but not so impressed by Jiji.
Jie Zheng couldn't even remember what Jijiu said during the mobilization ceremony.
All he remembered was that he was very excited.
It was because the day he had been waiting for for so long, the day when Toyotomi Nobuhide was going to take action against the Edo Shogunate, the day when the Toyotomi clan was going to officially take back the world, had finally come.
Jie Zheng did not have a heavy past, nor did he have any deep hatred towards the Edo Shogunate.
The reason why he became a member of the Toyotomi army and worked for Toyotomi Nobuhide was just for the most vulgar and ordinary reason - he wanted to be a superior person and the master of a city or a place.
He was originally an ordinary lower-ranking samurai of the Sendai domain. In this peaceful world, he had almost no chance to make merit and escape from his status as a lower-ranking samurai.
It is extremely difficult to escape from the status of a low-level warrior, let alone become the master of a city or a place.
Jie Zheng didn't want this to happen.
He didn't want to spend his life in mediocrity as a low-ranking samurai.
So when he came into contact with the Toyotomi army by chance, he resolutely left his feudal lord and hometown and joined the Toyotomi army.
In the Toyotomi army, he tried his best to improve and hone himself.
All this was done for the purpose of achieving success in the Toyotomi army in the future.
Everything was done to help the Toyotomi clan regain the world, and he took advantage of this opportunity to become the master of a city or a place through military achievements.
Everything is for my dream.
His efforts had not been in vain. Now, he was very fortunate to be able to lead a musketeer unit in the battle tonight.
Before the battle tonight began, he had made up his mind - no matter what, he must gain great military merit in tonight's "Osaka Spring Campaign and Suppression Operation"!
If he betrayed the Toyotomi army, his dream of "becoming the master of a city or a place" would never be realized.
It is this belief that has kept Jie Zheng persisting and he is unwilling to reveal any information to Mucun and the others until now.
"Do it again!" Makimura roughly covered Jie Zheng's face with the white cloth again, and then asked Shimada to continue pouring water on Jie Zheng's face.
Genichi, Fuma, A-Machi, and A-Tsuku are now in the room where Jie Zheng is being interrogated.
Looking at Jie Zheng who was once again being tortured by water torture and kept moaning, Azhu couldn't help but murmur, "This guy has a really strong willpower..."
"He must have some kind of belief." Feng Mo said, "Because of the support of belief, he has been able to hold on until now."
"This is troublesome." Feng Mo smiled bitterly and touched Zhengliang's forehead. "It's impossible to make a person with such a firm belief give up without spending some effort."
The sooner they could collect valuable information from these people, the sooner they could find and help Ogata, who is still missing. So Fuma's words just now made Atachi, who already looked unhappy, look even uglier.
Ah-Machi does know some of the interrogation methods that have been passed down from generation to generation in their Shiranui.
However, those powerful interrogation methods have extremely high requirements for venues and tools, and it is impossible to use those powerful interrogation methods at present.
When Ating frowned, thinking about whether there was any way to help Makimura and the others get information, she suddenly caught a glimpse of a strange-looking stick-like object lying quietly in a corner of the room.
"What is this?" Ating walked over slowly and picked up the thing.
"Oh, this was found on this person." Shimada, who was pouring water on Jie Zheng's face, pouted at Jie Zheng and then explained, "This should be a Buddhist magic weapon. Because it seemed useless, I just threw it there."
A-Ting: "The magic weapon on this person..."
It is quite common to carry one or two Buddhist or Shinto instruments on one's person for good luck.
Ating felt that this thing was of no use, and was about to throw it back to its place -
"Um……?"
Ating's eyebrows suddenly raised, then he put the stick-shaped magic weapon under his nose and sniffed it hard.
"Ms. Atachi, what's wrong?" Azhu asked in confusion when he noticed Atachi's strange behavior.
A-Ming did not respond to A-Tsukushi immediately.
Because now she has put all her heart and soul into memories.
——This taste is...
This stick-shaped magical instrument exudes a special fragrance.
After smelling this special fragrance, a strong sense of familiarity surged into Ating's heart.
A-Ming was 100% sure that he had smelled this .
——Where? Where have you smelled this scent before?
Ating raised his hand and pressed it on his smooth forehead, searching and piecing together fragments of memory in his mind like putting together a puzzle.
Fragments of memory are connected one by one.
A complete "puzzle" finally appeared in Ating's mind.
She finally remembered.
On the day when Ogata went to participate in the "big test", on the morning when A-machi and A-tsuki were strolling around Osaka, she smelled this scent from an old monk named Qingcheng who passed by her by chance...
Ating quickly threw the stick-shaped magic weapon in his hand aside, then pounced to Jie Zheng's side, lowered his head, and sniffed Jie Zheng's body hard.
The smell is very light, but one can still vaguely smell a bit of that special fragrance on Jie Zheng's body...
Ating's sudden and strange behavior made everyone present look confused and puzzled.
Genichi reacted the fastest. After a brief moment of confusion, he asked A-Ming seriously:
"Ms. A-Ming, have you discovered anything?"
"For now..." Ating slowly straightened up, "It can be considered... a new discovery, I don't know if it will be useful..."
A moment later——
"Can I smell the scent of the abbot of Ryushui Temple on that man?" Mamiya frowned slightly.
A-Machi, A-Tsuku, Fuma and Huluya are now gathered in the Buddhist hall of the Buddhist temple where they are currently hiding.
They gathered together and listened to the new discovery that Ating had just made.
"Yeah." Ating nodded gently, "Azhu and I once ran into the abbot of Longshui Temple on the street..."
Ating explained to everyone in detail how she first encountered this incense.
"…At that time, a passerby told me and Azhu that the incense used by Qingcheng, the abbot of Longshui Temple, was specially made by him, and it was the only one of its kind in the world. Because the smell was very special, I dared to conclude that I was not wrong. The instrument of that man and the smell on his body were the same as the incense smell of Qingcheng."
"...But this doesn't prove anything." Asai curled his lips. "Maybe the man had just visited the Ryusui Temple to worship Buddha before, and then bought a ritual implement from the temple. Because it was a ritual implement produced in the Ryusui Temple, it was naturally stained with that clear special incense. After he put the ritual implement in his arms, the scent of the incense spread to the man's body."
"Yes. That's why I just told Master Genichi: 'This is a new discovery, I don't know if it's useful'..." Atachi smiled helplessly.
"No!" As soon as Ating finished speaking, Mamiya, who was currently frowning, said in a deep voice, "Ms. Ating, your discovery... is not information that cannot be used by Yongchang."
"Your new discovery is very useful."
"Ryusui Temple... If it's Ryusui Temple, then it's easy to explain..."
Everyone's eyes were now focused on Mamiya.
"What do you mean?" Shimada blinked twice. "Mamiya-senpai, what do you mean by 'If it's Ryusui Temple, then it's easy to explain'?"
"Tonight's enemies are trying to capture our lord, attack Ogata-kun, and wreak havoc in Osaka." Mamiya stretched out his right index and middle fingers and pressed them against his brows, looking thoughtful. "It's impossible to carry out so many tasks at the same time without a unified command post to coordinate and command."
"Since we are organizing such a complex operation covering almost the entire Osaka, it is impossible for the command post to be built in a place that is too remote and inconvenient for personnel to travel."
"If I were to take unified command of this series of systems tonight, I would definitely set up the command post somewhere in Osaka City with the best geographical location."
"It would be best if it was a place that was high up and could overlook most of Osaka, and also had extremely convenient access for people to come and go."
"Ryusui Temple is located in Tomon-cho, which is close to the center of Osaka. There are countless streets and alleys, and people, livestock, and horse-drawn carriages can all move freely here."
"Not only that, the terrain of Ryusui Temple is high enough. From Ryusui Temple, you can have a panoramic view of most of Osaka."
"Mamiya." Asai's eyes widened. "How come you are so familiar with that Ryusui Temple? Have you ever been to Ryusui Temple before?"
“I haven’t been there, but I’m very familiar with Osaka. Osaka is like my backyard to me.”
"I used to often follow my lord to Osaka to discuss business with others. We walked around the streets of Osaka. Because my lord and I were not familiar with Osaka, we often got lost."
"So in order to facilitate operations in Osaka, I memorized the entire map of Osaka."
"Osaka is such a big city, and you can actually memorize its map?" Azhu looked terrified.
"It's not as difficult to memorize as the map of Edo." Mamiya said lightly.
Azhu opened his mouth wide, looked at Mamiya in confusion, and then looked at the other people present.
She saw that Makimura and the others were all calm, as if they were used to it. After hearing what Mamiya had just said, they all showed expressions of "Oh, I see" and "As expected of Mamiya".
Are you all right?! He just said that he memorized the maps of Osaka and Edo! Why are you all so unsurprised? Is this something very common? Azuki asked everyone with his eyes.
At this time, A-Ming patted A-Tsuku's shoulder.
When Azhu looked up at Ating, Ating looked at him and said: You'll get used to it.
What Mamiya said just now undoubtedly made everyone's expression become serious.
"In summary, I can now make the following assumption—" Mamiya continued, "The enemy may now be using Ryusui Temple as their main base. And the abbot of Ryusui Temple, Kiyosumi, is in league with those enemies."
"This would explain why the man had a magical instrument with a clear scent on it."
"...But, Mamiya." Asai shook his head gently, "This is just your assumption. There must be more than one place in Osaka that is suitable for use as a command post..."
Asai hadn’t finished speaking yet—
"Okay! Then let's go to Longshui Temple and take a look at the situation there!"
Genichi's cheerful voice interrupted Asai's speech.
"Master Genichi?" Asai turned his head to look at Genichi with a look of surprise on his face.
The others then turned their attention to Yuan Yi.
"The two men we captured have kept their mouths shut until now, refusing to reveal any information." Yuan Yi raised his hand and touched the handle of the sword hanging on his left waist, and said slowly, "It's a rare clue now, so we can't waste it."
"Instead of just standing there staring at each other, why not explore the existing clues?"
"Perhaps that Ryusui Temple is really the enemy's main camp."
"What do you think?"
Everyone looked at each other.
Then they nodded one by one.
…
…
Time goes back to the present——
After Yoshihisa called out his name, Yuan tilted his head, looking puzzled:
"Excuse me, who are you? Are you my enemy again?"
Genichi's question made Yoshihisa stunned for a moment, and then he laughed at himself:
"You don't know me... That's right. After all, 41 years ago, when Iga Village was destroyed, I was just an ordinary pawn. How could you, the Sword Saint, remember me?"
As the voice fell, Jijiu gritted his teeth and infused powerful strength into the pistol in his hand.
Yoshihisa used 60% of his strength in one breath, hoping to knock Genichi away.
But who would have thought - Genichi's feet, as well as Yang Shen who was holding up his gun, did not move at all.
Not only did he not move, he even had the energy to express his feelings out loud:
"Iga... I see... Are you also a living ghost from Iga-no-Sato?"
"Hey! You two!"
At this moment, a delicate cry suddenly sounded, drawing everyone's attention.
The owner of this cry struggled to sit up, and then shouted to Genichi and Mamiya:
"These two people have incomplete immortal bodies!"
"They only have brains that cannot regenerate! Chop off their heads! Or inflict enough damage to them! As long as you inflict enough damage to them in a short period of time, they will die!"